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Italy's GDP contracted 0.3% in the last quarter of 2019, the biggest drop in six years. And the impact of the coronavirus could aggravate the situation in the coming months. Tourism, fashion, exports ... Covid-19 threatens to infect the main Italian industries and quarantine the delicate health of the third economy in the euro zone .

The first alarm signal was launched by the Bank of Italy. Governor Ignazio Visco warned that the impact of the coronavirus could weigh 0.2% of GDP . The focus of contagion in Italy is concentrated in very limited areas of Lombardy and Veneto, two regions in the north of the country that together amount to 30% of national wealth and account for 40% of exports. Confcommercio, the main association of merchants in Italy, estimates losses worth between 5,000 and 7,000 million euros if the coronavirus crisis lasts until spring and points to tourism as the first victim.

The tourism sector in Italy represents 13% of the national wealth, generates an annual turnover of about 146,000 million euros and employs more than four million workers, according to data from the National Confederation of small and medium enterprises in the sector. In Lombadía and Veneto alone, foreign tourists leave almost 15 million euros each year. However, the coronavirus panic is causing an unprecedented crisis in the sector. Travel agencies and hotel accommodations have seen the "200 million reservations for the month of March" disappear , denounces the association of the tourism sector Assoturismo Confesercenti. "It's the blackest moment we've had, not even September 11 had affected so much," they say.

Only in the last week Venice has registered 40% of cancellations in reservations; Naples 30%; Turin almost 50% and in Rome, the capital, where the only three registered cases of coronavirus are already officially cured, cancellations reach 90% only in March. In Milan hotel occupancy has fallen to 20% compared to 90% on average that used to register at this time of year. International congresses and fairs such as the Furniture Fair have been suspended, which every year attracts about 400,000 visitors and generates benefits of 350 million euros, according to the Milan Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, Lombardy, the economic engine of Italy par excellence, began to suffer the consequences of the coronavirus even before the disease crossed the borders . Due to the epidemic, Milan fashion week kicked off on February 18 with the absence of some 1,000 workers from the sector from China - buyers, experts and journalists - and ended six days later with the cancellation of fashion shows and a city armored The closure or limitation of schedules in museums, cinemas or bars in Milan to try to stop the spread of the virus, together with the recommendations of many foreign countries not to travel to Italy at this time, has caused a mass cancellation of reservations hotels and is making the tourism sector shake.

"Alarmist information"

The businessmen of the sector also consider that the way in which the expansion of the coronavirus in the transalpine country has been reported has worsened the situation . The president of the Italian Federation of Business, Travel and Tourism Associations, Ivana Jelinic, denounces that "alarmist information both in Italy and in some foreign countries has created a panic situation beyond all logic and reason" that has created damage economic equivalent to 70% of the value of tourism in the transalpine country.

In an attempt to send a message of tranquility and reduce the foreseeable damage to the economy, the Italian Government has changed the communication strategy to reduce the alarm and reiterate that the country is safe. " There is no reason to advise against traveling to Italy, not even to the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, " Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio insisted yesterday at a conference before the foreign press in which he reiterated that only 0.05% of the territory has been considered the focus of contagion.

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